Rush Limbaugh was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer on February 4, 2020. A day later I wrote, Rush Limbaugh, Meet Lee Atwater, wondering if in his final days, Limbaugh would express some regret for his actions, as the late Lee Atwater did. Like Atwater, Limbaugh had about the same year between diagnosis and death but Limbaugh was unrepentant to the end, as recently as February 1, 2021 referring to the Vice-President as “Kommie Harris.”
Far from being repentant, Limbaugh turned his last year into his deadliest. More aggressively than anyone, even Trump, “he turned Covid-19 into a culture war, a partisan litmus test.” (Rolling Stone.)
He died with the blood of thousands on his hands.
*****
Atwater was the preeminent ruthless Republican operative of the ‘80s, perhaps most famous for the “Willie Horton Ad” against Michael Dukakis in 1988, which said:
"Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty, he allowed first-degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison,"
The ad ends with this tag line: "Weekend prison passes, Dukakis on crime."
In 1990, Atwater was diagnosed with brain cancer, which turned out to be terminal. In the next year, he apologized several times for his ugly campaigns, most deeply in an interview with Life Magazine in January 1991,
as reported in the NY Times on January 13:
My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood . . . I have learned a lesson: Politics and human relationships are separate. It took me a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth. . .
Atwater died less than two months later.
*****
Rush Limbaugh? Not so much.
Here’s the evidence
On December 23, 2020, his last show of that year, he was emotional, thanking those who supported him, his wife, etc. But he also referenced Trump’s “marvelous speech last night — a four-minute speech on the COVID relief debacle coming out of the Congress — that should be studied in a master’s course in communication.” A “debacle” trying to save people’s lives.
On January 20, he falsely said "Democrats “have not legitimately won” the 2020 election.”
On his February 1 show, referring to the Vice-President, he said:
This is Kommie Harris. Kommie Harris last Thursday was in Huntington, West Virginia. She’s vice president. She’s on WSAZ-TV News, and this is what she said about work for coal workers who are gonna lose their jobs due to the Biden administration’s climate plan.
All year, Covid was his deadliest legacy. According to Rolling Stone, Rush Limbaugh “turned Covid-19 into a culture war, a partisan litmus test — and one that would have particularly deadly consequences in red-state America.”
So forget about the “staged overrunning of hospitals” being used to inflate the coronavirus numbers. Pay no heed to Dr. Anthony Fauci, that known “Hillary Clinton sympathizer” working to “get rid of Donald Trump.” Don’t go around looking like a “mask-wearing freak.” Instead, gird yourself for battle.
On his very last show on February 2 , he blasted cancelation of the XL Pipeline as a job killer, saying
What do you think the Democrat Party is? It's clear as a bell they have no desire to enhance your life. They're taking jobs away from you," Limbaugh said. "This is what Biden and his admininstration are hell-bent on doing. They want you to become dependent on them, a ward of the state. You're not supposed to have enough power to oppose them."
[From Fox News]
Last year I concluded:
My wish is for Rush is to look to Lee Atwater’s example, and while gravely ill, acknowledge the harm he has done. Some day, people will look back on this era and its roots and judge it harshly. Now Rush can reflect on his mortality and perhaps consider the effect he has had, I hope he emulates Atwater and repudiates or at least does something to mitigate his ugly record.
I don’t expect it.
I’m not holding my breath.
I’m just putting the idea out there.
No repentence.
Quite the opposite. He spent his final year on earth using his huge platform to literally push thousands to their deaths.
Blood on his hands to the end.